For those arriving early, please join us at 7pm for our open mic-style Whispers From Beyond from 7-8pm. This group meets on the second Saturday of each month and spotlights guest speakers from SF and genre related fields of interest.

This group meets on the second Saturday of each month and spotlights guest speakers from SF and genre related fields of interest. This month we welcome Elizabeth Romanaux, representative of the Liberty Science Center and the NJ Association of Museums, who will be talking to us about work at the museums, creating exhibitions, and so much more.

Face the Fiction Presents:Elizabeth RomanauxSeptember 11, 2010

The watchword was Science on Saturday as the Science Fiction Society of Northern New Jersey gathered together for a little something out of the ordinary: a presentation by Vice-President of Marketing and Public Relations for the Liberty Science Center, Elizabeth Romanaux. The evening started early with discussions of Star Wars and Warhammer 40,000/Rogue Trader in Todd's Carpool. That's right, Todd Ehrenfels, Kate Landis, and Todd Debiak teamed up for laughs and conversation on the road, as I wanted to make sure that everyone had a chance to have some fun.

We arrived at 6:30pm and Kate, Todd and I started setting up the room in preparation for the meeting. During the set-up we chatted about Cthulu, the problems with some modern SF movies, and the decline and fall of the SyFy channel. We were soon joined by the Spinmen: Steve and Jim Spinosa, who pitched in with contributions on Technology and e-Publishing. Next in the room was Master Gene McGrath, who I would have liked to chat with a bit more, but a rapid influx of people prevented my socialization efforts. Next thing we knew, it was 8:00 and Elizabeth was arriving and ready to start.

Like a Super Derecho blowing in across the Great Plains, Elizabeth started the evening out with a masterful description of the Liberty Science Center's latest premier attraction: The Baby Mammoth, Lyuba, who is headlining the the Mammoths and Mastadons exhibit (http://www.lsc.org/lsc/ourexperiences/exhibits/mammoths). Elizabeth explained that she was very excited about this because the opportunity to actually see something like this is beyond rare, and hearkens back to her first steps in the realms of science.

Brought up in a home filled with science, Elizabeth Romanaux wanted first to be an Anthropologist and Archeologist after becoming enamored of the sciences due to early exposure to National Geographic magazine. Before the age of six, her focus had changed to Geology and Paleontology, subjects that she continued to favor until she arrived at college and learned that she would need a great deal more math in her background, and years of lab-work before she could fully participate in the sciences that she so loved. After school, she moved out to the West Coast and began a successful career in Marketing, and eventually landed a gig back in New York City doing PR and Marketing for a firm that dealt almost exclusively with museums. The Liberty Science Center was not having much success with their current advertising and PR guru, and through a quirk of fate, the Chief Administrator was someone who Elizabeth had babysat for in the past (small world), and said Chief Administrator placed Elizabeth's resume and curriculum vitae on the desk of the then VP of Marketing and said, "You owe me one."

Thus began a career of awesome events at the Liberty Science Center. Elizabeth recounted tales of frantically gathering the CEO of the Liberty Science Center from Mexico City and having the exhibit makers drop everything to build a proper erupting Mount Saint Helens during the more recent eruption about five years ago for an appearance on the Today Show. Explaining the facts of environmental sciences to John McCain to help him make informed decisions on New Jersey Horseshoe Crab issues was another cool topic of conversation. While politicians and such are cool, some of the celebrities that have graced the LSC were just as much fun and fodder for discussion.

Conversation turned from the LSC itself to the concepts of Science in the media, conservation, and a few other important issues. When asked if she thought that there might be too many Science Museums in the NY Metro area, she quipped that there was no shortage of ignorance and so there should be no shortage of education. We discussed the environmental impact of our homes and habituation, the importance of newts, greening the house, saving the spiders, and the importance of anatomically correct anatomy models. Also in the mix were anecdotes about the science courses for educators, the cool programs for Abbott District Schools, and changes in the way that reporting is being done.

I am totally not doing this event justice. We started promptly at 8pm, and likely would have kept going until midnight if the store was not closing at 10pm. As it was we had to force an end to the evening when the manager of the store very subtly reminded us that they were closing in 10 minutes. We repaired the room in record time, and then proceeded to chat in the parking lot until 11pm. In addition, Kate, Todd, and I enjoyed even more discussion on the way home, citing many interesting topics from the event before moving the topic to how cool the rock band Genesis is.

Join us in October as Anton Strout and Ekaterina Sedia for a discussion of Werewolves, Lycanthropes, and Shapechangers at Borders Books & Music at the Ramsey Interstate Shopping Center on October 9th.